I have several stories that I could share. 1. How we could have sold our 17 year old daughter to a man in his 50's for 10 racing camels when we vacationed in Egypt. 2. Being robbed at gunpoint when I worked at Beverly Garland's Howard Johnson in North Hollywood, California when I worked the graveyard shift in the early 1980's. 3. During the Gulf War, while my husband was in Saudi Arabia and I was in the States with my 4 year old son, and I knew when the Scud missiles were being launched into the Dhahran camp from watching CNN, before my husband could hear the air raid sirens. 4. Camping in an isolated area of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada in 1985, when the only other people we encountered were Grizzly Bear hunters. Which story do you want me to tell?

Last edited by Sleepy's Sister; 08-02-2017 at 08:44 PM.

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and come to think of it, i don't think i've necessarily shared many of my zoo stories in the VP scene. best ones are probably: 1) playing indiana jones in the reptile house; 2) heedless exotic birds and the day of the ducklings in the bird house; 3) gardening in bear country, trying to avoid soiling myself; 4) the time rhinoceroses could have crushed me, but didn't; 5) bart the camel and his disgusting tongue dance.

I want to hear some interesting and unique stories! It was sleepy & tiltjp's stories that always grabbed my attention. I love hearing about the unique things that happens in different people's lives, things that shaped people's lives or just things they could never have expected. Everyone has a good story whether they realize it or not.

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I hope the story isn't too disappointing, after the anticipation...Ok. Here goes... Back in April of 1985, when my husband and I were living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we and a bunch of our friends decided to go snow camping. I suppose it's true that with age comes wisdom, because at my age the idea of camping in the snow seems ludicrous. My husband, Rex, is a geologist, and many of our friends are also geologists. They are a hearty bunch, who enjoy roughing it in the wilderness, after having done years of field work in college. Me, not so much! I was convinced by them that this was a great idea because 1. There are no mosquitos in the winter, 2. Wildlife is in hibernation, and 3. No one but us would be crazy enough to be out there in the sub-arctic temperatures.

We drove several hours north of Calgary into one of the most remote areas you can envision. During the drive, our friends told stories about their experiences with bears. Imagine what 4 hours of these stories would do to your already apprehensive feelings about snow camping in the middle of nowhere.

Here are a few of the stories that were shared during the drive...

1. A colleague of one of our friends was required to do research in Northern, Canada, near Churchill, Manitoba which is well known for its polar bear population. This guy was particularly afraid of polar bears (which in my opinion is not an unreasonable fear), so he looked at statistics of polar bear sightings on some of the uninhabited islands in the Arctic Ocean, until he found one that had never had a documented polar bear sighting. He then asked if he could do his research on this island, instead of his original assignment. When it was approved, he and a team of geologists gathered their supplies and headed out. In the middle of the very first night of camping on this uninhabited island, you guessed it, a polar bear comes into their camp, sneaks into one of the geologists' tents and drags the guy away by his head. They found his body the next morning. Obviously, there had been no recorded polar bear sightings, because the island was UNINHABITED.

2. Another friend of ours was doing field work near Banff, Alberta, Canada with a fellow student. They had backpacks that were packed with all sorts of tasty treats that they planned to snack on throughout the day. Apparently, a nearby grizzly caught a whiff of something in the backpacks that was very appealing, because the grizzly started following them. After several minutes of trying to get away from the bear, our friend decided to toss the bear a peace offering from the backpack, hoping that the bear would be appeased and leave them alone. The bear quickly devoured the sandwich that was offered, and then continued to follow them. Our friend and his companion continued walking at a fast pace to try to get away from the Grizzly, but the Grizzly kept coming. They tossed more treats, which the bear quickly ate, and then continued tracking them. Finally, our friend and his companion tossed their backpacks, and found a bluff to climb up on. After the bear rummaged through the backpacks he paced back and forth beneath the bluff for about an hour, before he finally gave up and left.

3. A geologist, who worked with my husband, was camping alone in the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the middle of the night a brown bear came upon her tent and started tossing it about, with her inside of it. She let out an enormous scream and started punching the tent from the inside, eventually scaring the bear away.

So… to return to my tale… we were still about an hour from our camping location, and all of the stories increased my fears about a possible bear encounter. It was pretty obvious to my friends that I was nervous, so they tried to ease my fears by saying, “But the bears are hibernating now.” I was starting to relax, when what did we see in the middle of nothingness? A couple of men carrying Ruger Hawkeye rifles, apparently these are the perfect rifles for bear hunting. We pulled our SUV up to where they were standing to ask them what they were doing out here in the middle of nowhere. They told us that they were Grizzly Bear hunters, and that this location was a prime spot for Grizzly Bear hunting. Once again my fears grew.
We finally reached our destination, and pitched our tents beneath some fir trees. My husband told me that if a bear came into the area, we could climb a tree to escape. (But first you have to be a pretty good tree climber, I thought, which is not one of my skills.) I hardly slept that night. Sometime around midnight, it started snowing. The snow gathered thickly on the tree limbs, occasionally falling to the ground in clumps. Every time a clump fell on our sanctuary, I was certain that it was a Grizzly’s claw raking our tent. I could tell that some of the other campers were spooked too, even though they didn’t let on, because I could hear them talking in their tents throughout the night.
The next morning we packed up our tents and gear, and as we were driving away, off in the distance we saw a grizzly bear.

Last edited by Sleepy's Sister; 08-04-2017 at 05:15 PM.

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One day, when we were canoeing down the Bow River, in Western Alberta, we came upon a shivering, frightened prarie dog on a ledge about a foot above the river. There was no way for the prarie dog to escape the ledge, save jumping back in to the frigid water. We pulled the canoe up to the ledge, and Rex held out his oar. The prarie dog obviously realized that it had run out of options, so he meekly stepped onto the oar and allowed Rex to pull him onto our canoe, and into a gym bag filled with warm clothing and towels. We paddled further down the river, and about an hour later Rex unzipped the gym bag to check on our passenger. The poor little guy was still shaking, possibly hypothermic, so the bag was zipped up and we continued on down the river. A couple of hours later, we checked on our furry friend once again, and this time the shaking had stopped. So, we pulled our canoe over to the bank got out and carried the gym bag up the hill to an open area. When Rex unzipped the bag, the little guy hopped out and ran about 12 feet away, stopped and stared at us for about a minute, then turned and disappeared. There is no doubt in our minds that the pause was to thank us for saving him.

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Great bear story! My parents retired up in the North Georgia Appalachians and have a lot of black bears in the area. I've never seen one, but they've seen them a lot, though they're very skittish and scared around humans. I think the last time a person was killed by a black bear in Georgia was in the 1800's.

I woke up yesterday morning to a racket coming from above, so I went outside with a flashlight and there was a racoon on my roof trying to chew though some wood underneath the eve, trying to get in the attic. Luckily I saw it in time and it only had about a quarter-sized hole made which I was able to patch up with some sheet-metal roof flashing. It should keep out anything else. Not a fun way to start the day, but it could have been a lot worse.

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Shooby - It's good to know that the black bears are skittish. My husband's family has a little vacation cabin in north Alabama that we stay at when we visit the grandkids. I just read an article that the black bear sightings have been increasing over the last 3 years (150 in 2016). I was always told that there weren't any bears in Alabama.

Sorry to hear about your roof damage. Those pesky raccoons! Glad you caught him in the act. I imagine it would have been difficult to remove him from your attic, had he gotten in. My husband had a baby raccoon for a pet, when he was little. The mother had been killed, so Rex took him in and bottle fed him. As the raccoon got older, it became meaner, and his parents were afraid it might bite, so he had to get rid of it.

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So-- even back when I was a cute, silly young adult (around 21-22 I think), I was durn crazy about animals / taxa / zoology.

Of course I didn't have nearly the qualifications necessary to actually work with animals, but the Philly Zoo did let me work in the Greenhouse Dept for a summer.

The "Bear Country story" is pretty much simple yet terrifying-- Our job was merely to garden in the bear exhibits. The whole thing would have been VERY calm and sympatico were it not for one particular asshole who controlled the electronic gate switches, who thought it was hilarious to play with them at times... or at least, give that impression to the greenhouse crew (us).

Does anyone have a "life-changing" story, something that was big (or subtle), negative or positive, that you feel drastically changed who you are or became? As a child or an adult. (Of course only if it's not too personal, I'm not trying to pry).

Shooby, I'd recommend checking out "AskReddit." It often features this kind of stuff, and most of the top-voted responses are pretty high-quality stuff. The veil of anonymity really helps, too... people often create 2nd accts just to tell their big stories.

Let me know if you need help finding material, but really, if you simply browse threads you should have a good time. Jokes and wise-ass replies sprinkled in everywhere are common, just understand that.https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/

...

Personally, getting hooked up with a certain pharmaceutical in my mid-20's really changed my life in a lot of ways. Some for the best, some for worse, I guess.

My mom's passing also impacted me a lot. I was front and center for her last months, and even documented her recovery (then sudden, unexpected death) on the old VPF. "Growth" is the word.

Well for what it's worth not much it seems..I'm residing in my parents house until it is sold, my father passed away 3 years ago. I have been a live in carer for both for sometime, mum has been placed in a full time nursing home some 6 months ago. To afford the home care the house is being sold.

Thus now I have a room lined up at mates place and with the part time job at the club and my reluctant social security claim, this blue collar bum should be able to wing it.

Personally, getting hooked up with a certain pharmaceutical in my mid-20's really changed my life in a lot of ways. Some for the best, some for worse, I guess.

I want to hear this story. I have a few of my own that were life changing.

I feel my "origin" story is... kinda dorky, but it is what it is. I grew up in Kansas City in a blue collar family, very religious, went to a private christian school until I was 12. My Dad was promoted from a telephone lineman to an office job, so we got transferred to Georgia. It was like moving to Mars for me. I didn't get the southern culture, I was in public school for the first time, I was smack-dead in the middle of puberty, and I was the new kid. My Mom started working for the first time, my Dad was never around anymore, and I was pretty much left to my own devices. Looking back, it's crazy I didn't end up a homeless drug addict... there were no adults or teachers around who seemed to care or shown any concern for me, and all the rest of my family was back in KC. So during this time when most kids are learning to socialize and talk to girls, I was mostly by myself and deep in depression.

So then later transitioning into an adult, I didn't really have good social skills, I had no direction, and started hanging out with similar people. It's not a good group to be a part of. I didn't go onto college because I hated school with a passion, and there also wasn't anyone around to encourage me to do anything with my life. I feel that it was cannabis and psychedelics at that time that widened my perception and forced me to look at the world differently. And that got me reading books about meditation and learning to put it into regular practice, which helped get me over depression and change perception of things for the better. There was never a person to help me or guide me, I just had to figure things out.

So whenever I look at where I am now, that horrible time in my life stands out as the point that turned me into who I became, and I can accept it without regrets and take it for what it is. While I do have a job, it's pretty laid back and I've just been living as though I'm retired, keeping things simple.

Well you know, I'd say we have some thingaroos in common there, Shooby. Not to mention, sounds like you're a fellow "self-made man," so to speak. I like it.

...

Okay, the pharmaceutical in question was Zoloft, which had not been released to market yet. I took part in a controlled study. At the time it had quite a profound effect on the quality of my sleep. I found myself with fairly massive amounts of energy and happiness, and for whatever reasons, I felt like sharing it around. Granted, there were a few bumps and hitches along the way, but it seems like my intentions really were that simple: if I feel happy, I want to make other people happy. If I feel energised, repeat. Feel silly, repeat.

That's all very well, but at the time it was a huge shock to my baseline of thinking. I mean, I had always thought of myself as kind of a cynical loner until then. Certainly I wanted approval and social connection, like I think we all do, but this rocket fuel flowing through me...? How to deal, how to deal...

Well, the study didn't last, and I came crashing back to Erff. Hard. I was left with outsized dreams and appetites, and I wasted too many years (some say decades) trying to chase those feelings / ambitions.

What I'd rather have been doing was checking my thyroid levels, D3, B-vitamins, etc. Meditating, staying humble, etc. Respecting my body / mind for being quite an interesting mechanism, and not thinking that I was a part-time superhero, if only I could find my cape.

One of my friends Mom started taking zoloft in the 90's, though from what I understand it stopped working after 8 or 10 years and they switched her to something else, and then eventually something else, and I guess this will keep going until she runs out of prescription drugs to try.

Quote:

What I'd rather have been doing was checking my thyroid levels, D3, B-vitamins, etc. Meditating, staying humble, etc. Respecting my body / mind for being quite an interesting mechanism, and not thinking that I was a part-time superhero, if only I could find my cape.

This is what I've found myself for a lot of different issues. When I started learning about health & diet/nutrients and started changing that as well as exercising, it effected everything from my general mood, anxiety, energy levels, & especially sleep. For years there were things where I just thought "well, it's my genetics, nothing I can do", but when I figured out what I actually could do, I wished I had known about it when I was 20, I was just ignorant of the facts. Though figuring life out as your doing it seems to be a part of the game.

Back In 1978 My 1971 Volkswagen Type II Fastback had a trash bag for "glass" in it's driver side door. I had a pair of speaker cabinets on the rear deck, apparently coveted by someone. They decided breaking a window was the best way at them. One dark and stormy(seriously folks)night I drove off to pick up some weed with that black trash bag between me, the storm and all traffic. A calculated risk calculated by a stoned calculator. It had been quite a storm with lots of cloud to ground lightning. A short visit with some very nice people and I was on my way home in a raging deludge. I was just about home. Slowly driving thru a intersection one block from my appartment and K-BLASTING-BOOM ...MY CAR WAS ENGULFED BY A YELLOW BALL OF FIRE ! All I could see was fire eveywhere and my car was rumbling in the sound of an explosion. Heat poured thru the trash bag. A few seconds and it was over. I looked around ... The power was still on. The street lights on, the traffic light working. I figured a transformer, right over my head, had been hit by lightning and exploded. I figured my power would be out for hours or worse. The power was on, I could see my house lights from the intersection. Damn glad to be home, I went to bed. Next morning I go to my car and stop dead in my tracks. That trash bag was all melted and runny looking. But, only the outside layer. The inner part saved me from being flambe`ed. I walked up to the intersection. No sign of any problem...Nothing. I never did see what caused all that fire.